If you've ever told your parents about your day at school, or if
you've explained to a friend how to make chicken noodle soup, you
already have practice giving an informative speech. An informative
speech can be used to tell people about something you're interested
in or to explain how to do something. If that sounds easy, it's
because it is. Just choose your topic and make sure you know what
you're talking about.
How to Write an Informative Speech
If you've ever told your parents about your day at school, or if you've explained to a friend how to make chicken noodle soup, you already have practice giving an informative speech. An informative speech can be used to tell people about something you're interested in or to explain how to do something. If that sounds easy, it's because it is. Just choose your topic and make sure you know what you're talking about.
Steps
- Pick a topic. Unless you're writing your speech for a school assignment, you probably already know what your topic is. If you are writing your speech for school, however, a good rule is to choose something you know a lot about; this will require the least amount of research. Alternatively, you may want to pick a topic you're keenly interested in, so you can research it and learn about it. Remember, informative speeches simply inform people. You don't want to choose a topic that will require you to base your speech on your opinion: that's for a persuasive speech.
- Narrow down your topic. If your speech is limited to five minutes, you don't have enough time to tell people all about the history of invention or to explain how to build a car. You may, however, be able to tell people about the history of the zipper or how to take apart a carbuerator. You should be able to thoroughly cover your topic in the time allotted.
- Develop your thesis. Your thesis should be a statement of what the speech is about, a sentence that describes your narrow topic. For example, "I am going to explain how to take apart a carburetor," or "In this speech you will learn about how the zipper came to be" might be good theses.
- Do your research. If there's one rule to writing an informative speech it's this: know your subject. If you're writing about something you know well, you may not need to do much, if any, research. Otherwise, hit the books, and learn as much as possible about your topic. Take notes of important information as you go along.
- Consider your audience. In general, unless your assignment says otherwise, it's a good idea to assume your audience knows nothing about your topic. With this in mind, you may need to give plenty of background information and be careful about what shortcuts you take in explaining your topic. If, however, you're giving your speech on carburetors to a group of auto mechanics, you don't need to give a lot of background information, because they already know the topic well.
- Outline your speech. Write a list of the information you think should be included. Put the list in logical order. If you're telling people how to do something, your outline might look a bit like the bolded first sentences in the steps of this wikiHow article. Remember you want everyone listening to go away with at least one piece of information they didn't know.
- Write an introduction. Your introduction should grab the audience's attention, perhaps with an amusing anecdote or an interesting quote relevant to your topic. Then you should proceed to give your thesis statement, and then, if it's a long or complicated speech, provide your audience with a roadmap.
- Expand your outline to make the body of the speech. Go through each key point on your outline and it.
- Write your conclusion. A conclusion should quickly summarize the main points of the speech. Ideally, your conclusion should refer back to the introduction in some way--this shows the speech is cohesive and tells the audience that you have come full circle.
- Time your speech. If you have been given a time limit, practice your speech - out loud - and time it. Cut out unnecessary material if your speech is too long. Unless your assignment says otherwise, don't worry if the speech is short of the time limit. The speech should be just long enough to cover the material thoroughly.
Tips
- Your outline is meant to be a guide to help you organize your speech, but it's not set in stone. As you fill in the details to actually write your speech, you may find that some points in your outline are unnecessary or out of order. Feel free to add, delete, and rearrange points to make sense.
- Be sure to edit and practice your speech to make sure everything goes smoothly when you deliver it to your audience.
- If you have trouble thinking of a topic for your speech, search the internet for topics. There are sites with lists of potential topics.
- Stick to the facts. Remember, you're not trying to persuade people to adopt an opinion. You're just informing them about something.
- Don't speak too fast; give your audience a chance to take in the information you are giving them.
- Speak loud enough for the audience to hear you.
